Mike Duke Quotes

I do not want to be a long-term CEO.

I'm in a different position than most CEO's. I'm a founder. I'm not a hired CEO. Now, I can be fired by the board, but most CEO's are hired by the board.

CEOs resign when the internal dynamics of the company and the external dynamics of the company actually come together to say it is appropriate. When the internal dynamics ask you whether you have a replacement. I think the transition from CEOships have also become cartoonish.

If somebody's going on your board, and you're going to be C.E.O., it will help if that person knows how to be C.E.O., who has done it before.

I think there's few cases in history where the C.E.O. steps down and is also the founder and reports to someone and that works.

When I took over the family business, it had already been a publicly traded company for 20 years. During one of the first annual meetings I attended, one shareholder stood up and advised me and everyone in attendance that I should resign.

The industry has to learn how to do CEO succession well. If your definition of success is Intel or Microsoft or HP or IBM, that's not a good track record, and yet they are the most successful ones.

Who my successor is will be up to the board, not me.

I'm a really big believer in chief executives not staying forever.

I've always been of the view that two-term presidency rule is a pretty good one and CEOs shouldn't overstay their welcome.

In business, sometimes you have to change the CEO in order to change the direction of the company.

I'm the C.E.O., nominated by the shareholders. If they're not happy, I have to take the consequences.

And we invested three hundred thousand dollars, became the lead investor and I became Chairman of the Board of Scientific Data Systems, as I was at Intel for a while.

On Friday I was in Washington for a meeting with Administration officials. In the course of that meeting, they requested that I 'step aside' as CEO of GM, and so I have.

I'm willing to have two directors on the DuPont board, me being one of them.

I'm going to continue doing my thing and work my butt off to add value for shareholders and as long as they and the board see fit to keep me in this role, I feel enormously privileged to serve.

My view is that at a certain age - and we can debate whether that age is 70-72 or 75 - members need to step off boards. As per the banking guidelines, that age for the director on a board today is 70.

Being a CEO still means sitting across the table from big institutional investors and showing your leadership and having them believe in you.

Abby Johnson has agreed to become Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity, reflecting a further step forward in our leadership succession plan. Abby will retain her role of President, and I will continue to serve as Chairman of the Board.

The problem with naming a No. 2 is you really want to throw all your weight behind the guy who is going to be the leader.

There is a difference between hiring a CEO and turning over control of the business.

Sitting on a corporate board is a hobby for me.

I know I should not be a hindrance to SoftBank's future growth and that I need to pass on the baton to the younger generation.

CEOs can stay too long.

I joined the board of Etsy when it was just three founders, and I helped recruit the COO and CTO, Chad Dickerson, who later became the CEO.